We're not sure if there's going to be a presidential debate tomorrow night or not, but either way it can't hurt to highlight some of the ways viewers can participate in advance or during the actual event. Here's a fun list.

Myspace and the Commission on President Debates announce a partnership, Paris Hilton responds to McCain campaign's video, McCain continues the "celebrity" attacks, and Republican Twitter movement is hardly a movement at all

John McCain nailed a homerun last night with one line which included smart buzz words like Hillary Clinton + Woodstock + earmarks. And in a way that only John McCain could do, he appropriately reminded the audience of his experience as a POW during Vietnam. A standing ovation from the crowd and a smart follow-up by his modern media team give a glimmer of hope that John McCain may be making a true play at a comeback.

Find out how after the jump...

We have had yet another online debate (YAOD), and once again, the Democratic candidates have been first to participate, with the Republicans nowhere in sight.

As the guy who was all hot and bothered about the YouTube debate snub, let me add a dose of reality to this discussion. The Republican debate isn't happening because the Huffington Post and Slate are Yahoo's chief co-sponsors. Something like 44 of 53 Slate staffers openly declared their preference for John Kerry in the last election. Nothing more needs to be said about Arianna's current political leanings.

Minutes after the Democratic YouTube/CNN debate in Charleston, S.C., I reacted to the debate for TechPresidentTV saying, "I don't think we're ever going to see another debate without a YouTube component in some way. And what I mean by that of course is user-generated content."

This Sunday's Republican debate in Iowa sponsored by ABC News and hosted by former Clinton press flack and fellow Ohioan, George Stephanopoulos, is the first debate, post-YouTube debate.

And, surprising to no one who reads this space closely, there's a user-generated component (UGC).

Dig in after the jump...

Over the last few hours, I'd been hearing buzz that GOP candidates were going wobbly on the CNN/YouTube debate. I was dismissive. Given the huge earned media hit the Democrats got this week, the fact that even the highly partisan questioners acquitted themselves better than Chris Matthews did in the first debate, and the sponsorship of the powerful Republican Party of Florida, I didn't think the GOP candidates would make the political mistake of passing up it up.

I was apparently wrong. Rudy Giuliani is unlikely to participate, according to an official source.

And Mitt Romney wouldn't commit, dissing the "snowman question."

Mitt Romney didn't like some of the more frivolous trappings and told the New Hampshire Union Leader that "I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman."

I would now expect numerous candidates to bail, just like they did at Ames, citing the lack of a frontrunner.

This is a big mistake. The Democrats are afraid to answer questions from Big Bad Fox News Anchors, and the Republicans are afraid to answer questions from regular people. Which is worse?

On Monday I went to Charleston, S.C. for the Dems' YouTube/CNN debate. I was planning on live-blogging the debate, and man did I have a great seat, but given the intense level of security at the Citadel (no electronics whatsoever), that wasn't an option.

I did however grab my camera to talk with some of the candidates and Internet strategists after the debate in the "spin room." And thankfully, some of them were willing to give away some free advice for the Republican candidates for the upcoming YouTube/CNN debate in Florida on September 17. (Submit your questions here.)

Below the fold find short vlogs with Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Joe Trippi (Edwards), Peter Leyden (New Politics Institute), Danny Glover (National Journal), and Steve Peterson (Bivings, YouTube user).

The buffet line for vlogs begins after the jump...

The Web on the Candidates

It will truly be the first YouTube election. A week after MySpace announced they're hosting presidential town halls across the country, YouTube has announced they'll be co-sponsoring, with CNN, the first of six Democratic debates and are in talks to co-sponsor a Republican debate. There aren't any details on the format yet, but this is certainly a good development in light of the work that Larry Lessig and others have done to ensure that TV footage from the debates is legally accessible online. We'll follow up as we learn more.

In their latest Politics 2.0 column in the Politico, some guys named Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry (they have something to do with a certain technology and politics conference and web site) write about the rise of the netizen, a new breed of citizen-activists who "are mastering the new platforms, tools, information systems and social networks available online and using them to push new ideas or galvanize new communities for change." Presidential campaigns can't dismiss the influence of these "super-empowered citizens," because "unlike volunteers of old, if you cross them, they can hurt you on a national scale. If you embrace them, they may be more valuable than any consultant you can find."

As you know, there's a GOP Presidential debate tonight in South Carolina (Fox News Channel, 9 PM Eastern).

I'm not going to watch it until it makes its way in to easier-to-digest clips on YouTube and after I read all of my favorite conservative blogs for their reactions.

Besides, it's not like they're going to talk about any of the issues I care about, e.g., the Internet, net neutrality, etc.

Since I'm not going to watch, and I'm going to support whoever our nominee ends up being regardless of who "wins" the debate, (I can't vote FYI because I live in Washington, DC), I'll simply offer some free advice that I'd be giving to a candidate -- if I were working for him. So here goes:

You know better... Read my free advice after the jump

Pollster.com reports that Pollster friend Janet Harris has compiled tag clouds (they're really "word frequency clouds") that visually depict the most-often used words each candidate used in last night's Democratic debate, and the results are perfect illustrations of how great these tag-cloud thingies are.